Worked a bit more...

[telophase]

...on refining Near's nose and mouth. There is *something* about his left nostril (our right) that is Just. Not. Right. that I can't figure out. Aarg.









Mello especially hates Near's left nostril. Just because.

Comments

[chisotahn]

Hm, you are right, I was going to say there was something a little odd about that nostril BEFORE I read that part of your post. ^^;

I think, perhaps, the highlight is too pointy? It looks like that nostril is a bit elongated compared to the other one... *attempts at analyzing* I'm not entirely sure... but there's SOMETHING.

[pzb.livejournal.com]

I think it's flairing out too far.... The face is on a slight angle, but the nose appears to be straight on. I think the nostril needs to be sheered in a bit and line up with the corner of his eye.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That nostril is actually a flipped cut-and-paste of the other one, because the one I was working on was turning into a giant mess of mud. XD

And if I move the nostril (plus the flare of the outer part of the nostril) in, it looks too small. If I move it out, it looks too big. AARG.

[animarelic.livejournal.com]

I think it just seems sleightly off for the angle of his head, but I wouldn't have noticed it without you pointing it out.

[flusterdance.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Thing's not in perspective.

[kintail.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was just going to say that it looks too much like a mirror of the other nostril, as if his nose is straight-on instead of 3/4, which is visually confusing.

I think it's the shape, not the location, that needs to be tweaked. Not exactly sure how, or how to explain it, but the point of his nose should be in front of more of it, and the angle of the round part on the other side of his nostril will change the shape of that side, too. Best bet would be to find a reference photograph for the whole nose, if you haven't got one already... good luck!

[homasse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the angle's off--it's done as if the drawing was a straight-on portrait, but his head is tilted and closer to a 3/4 view. You might want to move the tip slightly to the left and make the left nostril smaller and shift it the tiniest bit down for the perspective change.

[lilrivkah.livejournal.com]

I think you should stop caring what other people think or whether it's perfect or not and just finish it. I see NOTHING in proportions or placement that detracts from the picture. People's faces are imperfect. It gives them personality. Painted faces should be as well.

[forvrin.livejournal.com]

The one thing I noticed right away is the way the front of the nostril creates a tangent with the curve of the tip of his nose. This is causing the nostril to actually appear longer than it is. Fixing it? I'm not sure.

[rachel-renee.livejournal.com]

It seems too light. The highlights are too bright for it to be in the shadow of the point of the nose. It makes it look larger or more protruding than it is. All the area around it is darker, so the highlights need to be darker to give it the proper shape.

Also the bridge of the nose is much closer to his left eye than his right, giving the impression that his nose was broken at some point.

That's all I can really pick up on until you've done more with the eyes. Once you've got them how you want them, the nose will look different. Especially since most people don't think of the nose without it's relationship to the eyes.

[madame-manga.livejournal.com]

This might help.



The centerline of the face and the perpendicular baselines of the main features are in black. A couple of additional baselines in yellow. Looking at these, you can see that the left nostril is a fraction too high compared to the tilt of the face, and so is the left eye.

The red lines show where the features are falling in relation to each other. Usually, the middle of the eye lines up with the outside corner of the mouth, and the inner corner of the eye lines up with the wing of the nose. That's happening on the right side of the face. As you can see, his left side is too wide overall; you're getting an impression of it stretching out and flattening instead of curving back in space towards the unseen left ear.

This is a VERY quick and ugly Photoshop warp of his left side to bring the features somewhat more in line. Probably I've lost all likeness now, but try putting this on a layer over the original and clicking it on and off to see the general idea...



Two more in illustration. The original, mirrored.



The wonked version, mirrored.

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you can resize the copied area, but did you consider making it 80-85% of its current width, leaving the height as is? I know that this method is very hit-or-miss about working, and you'd have to tinker with the transition into the rest of the nose, but hey... worth a shot, right?

[tekenduis.livejournal.com]

It looks to me like the shading on the right nostril is just a little too deep. It looks like it's in the right spot, but the shading makes it look like it's turned out towards the viewer, which is in opposition to the position of the rest of his head.